KOHAT: Shortage of ambulances and lingering issue of establishment of Edhi home in Kohat have prompted the residents to demand of the government to take immediate steps for ensuring provision of emergency services to them.

The 1122 service had been delayed for the last two years which was adding to miseries of the people because private ambulances lack trained nursing staff and equipment to ensure shifting of serious patients to hospital in recoverable condition.

Aleem Khan, head of the Edhi centre in Kohat, told this correspondent by phone that the provincial government had announced free land in three districts, including Kohat, several times for the centre but the necessary facility was yet to be materialised.

Similarly, the Edhi centre does not have its own office in Kohat and the one operating in Chakarkot is not visible to people from the main road as it is situated deep inside a market.

Sources said that the Edhi Foundation had contacted the government for establishment of Edhi home and its own graveyard in Kohat, but the provincial government had so far failed to fulfil its promise in this regard.

Mr Khan said that the foundation would soon launch its bheek muhim (begging campaign) for buying ambulances for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from which Kohat would also get its share.

He said that the government had announced to provide free land for construction of Edhi home in Kohat, but they had no funds to establish it though there was immense need for it to accommodate orphans, destitute women and victims of honor killing facing death threats.

He said that now a resolution had been moved in the KP Assembly for allotment of land for graveyards and ambulances, and it was hoped that the government would approve it on priority.

The residents have also urged the government to facilitate access to Edhi Rescue 115 number from PTCL lines.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2016